Karaoke Forums

We've tried that, but it didn't work. We've complained to Sound Choice and we've complained to Chartbuster. We've given them the addresses of places that were doing illegal karaoke, but nothing was ever done about it. They did not send anyone out. They did not send a cease-and-desist letter to the bar owner. They did not investigate it... NOTHING!

So, I'm sure YouTube isn't going to do anything about it either. I don't think that Sound Choice even bothers with piracy anymore which means, the pirates have won.

I personally will never use YouTube videos, period!

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I'm probably not going to check back here to follow up if any of you reply to me, but there's something that all of you purists are failing to acknowledge.

The only thing that matters anymore is whether the venue pays their ASCAP/BMI. Believe it or not, there are more options than paying for licensed CDGs, pirating them, or using YouTube. There is a fourth option.

CC Karaoke was brought up here early in the thread. He is now one of several dozen people producing modern karaoke videos using original tracks at much, MUCH higher quality than you can get from any traditional CDG vendor. I do the same thing with my Funbox Karaoke channel. We are all hobbyists who offer all of our videos for free, not just on YouTube, but downloadable in cloud storage, too.

And you know what? Almost none of us are playing a damn thing from YouTube. I sure don't, and my karaoke library is 5TB. We have all of this extremely modern stuff sitting cozy in our yard drives, offline, and we intentionally go out of our way to not use CDGs because the modern stuff is of substantially higher quality.

The karaoke landscape is changing dramatically. If you follow the KJ business model circa 2005, you're going to lose against these "evil pirates" as more and more singers demand obscure songs and original backing tracks. It's only going to get worse from here if you exclusively rely on CDG media.

Not true at all. The quality of the audio in a MP3+G track has nothing to do with the CDG part of it, which is just the lyrics. MP3 audio can have the same high bitrates as an MP4 video from YouTube or anywhere. The only thing the CC Karaoke Channel has to offer is the fact that they seem to be using original background music. I could take the audio from one of their YouTube videos and make an MP3+G version with the same audio quality and actually better graphics, and have it take up less hard drive space. Have you seen CC Karaoke's lyrics? They're black and white and look worse than CDG. If anything, CC Karaoke channel only proves how the resolution of the lyrics isn't what people are after.

Stop associating CDG with poor quality. Sure the graphics resolution can't top that of an HD video, but since when has that ever been a factor in a karaoke performance? The quality of the audio is most important and MP3 will always hold its own in the ability to record high bitrate flawless audio.

MP4 videos are best for music videos in between singers, but as far as your karaoke collection goes, I'd always prefer MP3+G files any day, because the audio quality is just as good, and the smaller files make life easier. Sure, hard drive space is getting cheaper and cheaper, but if your karaoke collection can take up 1 terabyte instead of 3 terabytes, why not? Less time copying them and less taxing on your CPU to play them, which means cooler running cpu and longer laptop life. It's a no brainer.

I question some other things you said too, but I'll leave that to the legal pros.

Ok, I'll tackle this one too since it's so blatantly wrong.

Venues paying their ASCAP and BMI fees only covers paying artists for public performances of their works (DJs playing original tracks or bands playing cover tunes of those songs). Artists also have control (if they control their own publishing rights) to decide song by song whether they want a karaoke version released and the rights to perform the track in public and display the lyrics. They grant those rights to a karaoke manufacturer like Sound Choice or Chartbuster. BMI and ASCAP do NOT cover that. In other words, you don't have the right to play any karaoke track in public. Just because no one has come after you yet for playing unlicensed tracks, doesn't mean it isn't illegal. YouTube has survived having unlicensed karaoke tracks so far because YouTube isn't usually played in public places and it's a different kind of licensing. Just because YouTube hasn't done anything yet about this doesn't mean you should be telling people or even implying that it's perfectly legal.


As if the word "hobbyists" somehow shields you from the illegal acts of copying these works and also playing them in public. That's like referring to a mass shooter as a "gun enthusiast". It's one thing to admit what's going on. It's another thing to act like it's ok. That's where the problem lies. You're acting like it's ok, and it's not. Karaoke manufacturers invest a lot of money creating these works and making them legal for public performances. Skirting around that in any way is indeed illegal.

I get how it's too easy these days for a new KJ to acquire a hard drive fully preloaded with tens of thousands of karaoke tracks to start his or her collection. However, as new tracks become available from legal sites, if you have a choice to choose between spending $1.99 on a karaoke version that's legal and licensed for public performances, and choosing to simply download a copy from YouTube, the right choice is to spend the $1.99. I think you know this already, which is why you need to hide and let us know that you are...

Which goes back to my original point that those who endorse piracy know who they are. They can not stand proudly or even hang around for the rest of the conversation.

You, my friend, are what we call an idiot. So, you think that it's ok to use illegal karaoke files as long as the venues pay their PRO fees? Wrong! One has nothing to do with the other and using illegal karaoke files puts the venue at risk of a lawsuit for copyright infringement from the karaoke producers.

This is why you said you would not be back after your initial post... because you know you are going to get slammed. You state that "the karaoke landscape is changing dramatically". And the reason for that is because of people like you.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Here's the funny thing, and I have gotten criticism here before for saying it: it does not matter to me if a host is legal or a pirate. I mean, as a singer, I never truly know for sure (there are hints, obviously).

But also, here's the thing: singers who demand obscure songs? I'm sure there's a market for that, but not in a lot of places, and it's not necessarily relevant to the majority of karaoke nights, spots, and bars out there. Like, at a Baby Ketten in Portland (a spot that's on my list to check out), absolutely. Hipster city, crowd that would probably like the Tom Waits deep cuts. Doing something like that at, say, my regular local spot? No matter how good I would do it (my Waits is pretty spot on, and it suits my can't-actually-sing approach), it wouldn't hit for the majority of the people there. People there sing old stuff, 80s stuff, hip hop, and contemporary pop. There's not a big demand for deep cut stuff there.

I agree the business model is changing, but I doubt it'll change the way you think it will or want it to.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast